1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to feeding original documents to the scanning station in a copying machine. More particularly, this invention relates to automatically feeding two originals in side-by-side registration to the scanning station while permitting the documents to be loaded into the document feeding apparatus sequentially.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Duel document copying is usually done on a copying machine capable of reducing dual documents to smaller copy. Typically two 81/2 .times. 11 inches original documents would be reduced to fit on a single 81/2 .times. 11 inches copy sheet. The feeding of dual documents to the scanning station of a copying machine is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,288,459. However, the operation as described in this patent requires a great deal of operator interaction. The operator is essentially the registering device for side-by-side registration. Further, after the operator has registered the documents side-by-side, he moves the documents simultaneously forward himself until the scanning station apparatus seizes the documents to begin scanning the documents. The prior art double document scanning station apparatus requires time consuming, precise operations by the operator. Accordingly, the time to load documents into the copying machine for dual document copying is relatively slow and the throughput for the copying job is therefore slow.
Semi-automatic feeding for single documents is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,986. Semi-automatic document feeding means an operator supplies documents to the entry station rather than mechanical apparatus. (Totally automatic document feeding usually refers to the operator stacking all the originals in a hopper and having the machine feed all the documents from the hopper to an entry station.) This patent shows apparatus for aligning single documents to a corner reference at an entry station. From the entry station the single document may be released to be fed forward onto a document glass or scanning station in a copier. Semi-automatic feeding works well in simplifying the operator interface for feeding single documents into a copying machine. U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,986 does not discuss problems associated with side-by-side registration and feeding of dual documents into a scanning station.
The problem is how to simplify the simultaneous feeding of two originals that are being supplied by hand to the document feeding apparatus by the operator. Side-by-side registration of the original documents by the operator is not desirable because of the precise and time consuming nature of the task. Restated, the problem is how to permit the operator to place the two originals at the input or entry station for the copier within a prescribed position having a wide tolerance and thereafter operating the machine so that the machine may register the documents side-by-side for scanning.